Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1663

Silence. Then, everything changed.

The scene was a harsh contrast: a mountain exploding in fire and smoke against eyes as cold as winter ice.

A huge mountain roared with fire. Black smoke, thick and oily, poured out, enough to melt the world. But the eyes watching were cold. Cold as the snow of the North Sea.

The hotter the mountain burned, the colder those eyes seemed to become.

“We’re running low on oil in the center!”

“More oil, now! Why are the people getting oil from the village so late!”

“T-there’s no large village nearby…”

“Stop making excuses and move! Now!”

Loud shouts and cries came from behind him. But the man stayed still, like a statue.

“The casualties on the west are heavy!”

“Push the remaining Suro troops towards them!”

“They’re heading towards the center!”

“Then change their direction! Signal them and send a messenger! Quickly!”

“Yes!”

Just setting fires and sending soldiers wouldn’t work. The key was to keep the fire burning in a line and push the enemies up evenly, so they couldn’t escape.

But anyone could see that this was not easy.

The mountain was rough and uneven. Fire was unpredictable, changing with every breath of wind. How many people could think about all these things and control the fire?

Ho Gamyeong was one of those few. His lips, set in a cruel line, moved.

“The southeast is lagging.”

“Yes! Strategist!”

“Go…”

“Yes.”

A flat voice came from his lips.

“As an example, cut off the arms and legs of two men and throw them alive into the fire. Tell the others, if they are slow again, everyone will suffer the same.”

“…”

“The answer?”

“Y-yes! Strategist!”

“Go.”

“Yes!”

The men nearby moved fast, like lightning. They were not just quick, they were scared. It was clear they were terrified of being thrown into the fire if they were even a little slow.

Ho Gamyeong didn’t care about their reaction. He just kept watching the burning mountain.

It was coming.

He knew that the heat couldn’t reach this far, but just looking at the fire made his face hot and his heart beat fast.

So, Ho Gamyeong made himself even colder inside.

To start, you need courage and fire. But to finish, you need cold, hard thinking.

Ho Gamyeong believed in that idea. He watched every small thing that happened, trying to stay calm.

“A fire attack…”

A voice reached Ho Gamyeong’s ear. Unlike Ho Gamyeong’s voice, which was heavy and quiet, this voice was twisted and full of feeling.

“How classic.”

“Saying it’s classic is like saying it’s the usual way.”

“Hmm?”

Ho Gamyeong answered without turning around.

“And traditional methods are used because they have been tested many times and proven to work.”

It might seem rude not to look at him, but Ho Gamyeong couldn’t take his eyes off the mountain. Luckily, the man speaking to him didn’t care about small rudeness.

“But even people who talk about strategy sometimes forget that.”

“Hmph…”

Jang Il-so made a small sound in his nose when Ho Gamyeong spoke.

“You mean it’s effective. Right?”

“Whether you are a martial artist or just a normal person, you will die if you burn. Maybe some Wudang fighters are strong enough to survive the fire, but not many.”

“I suppose so.”

Ho Gamyeong’s eyes narrowed a little.

“Martial artists are not very scared of fire because they are faster than fire.”

“Hmph.”

“But what if they can’t be faster?”

“…”

Ho Gamyeong spoke with confidence.

“They will be just like ordinary soldiers surrounded by fire. After that, it’s easy.”

Jang Il-so chuckled.

“Will it be hard to stop them?”

“If we didn’t pick a way to lose fewer of our people, we have to accept that many will die.”

Ho Gamyeong turned his head to look at Jang Il-so.

“Or… do you want to lose fewer people?”

“Tsk. You have a bad personality.”

“I apologize.”

Jang Il-so smirked as he watched Ho Gamyeong lower his head.

Traditional methods are scary. Jang Il-so agreed.

He liked to make things unpredictable, to surprise people, instead of doing what everyone expected. That’s why he knew how scary a simple, strong plan could be, one that didn’t change.

Maybe the Wudang swordsmen were starting to understand this now.

Of course, the weaker soldiers would also die in the fire, but that didn’t matter. Trading them for the Wudang swordsmen was worth it.

“But if they retreat, the fire will be useless, right? That would be boring.”

“They can never retreat. Not now that things have gotten like this.”

“Hmm?”

Jang Il-so made a short sound, like he found it interesting.

“Why?”

“Because they are trapped.”

“Trapped?”

“Yes.”

Ho Gamyeong’s eyes turned towards the top of Wudang Mountain.

The tall Cheonjubong Peak, where the Wudang buildings were.

“They might think they can’t move because of the fire and the soldiers who don’t care if they die. But really, they are trapped by their own ‘resolve,’ the thing they are so proud of.”

“Resolve, huh…”

“The reason they can’t retreat is that they have already decided to fight to the death. They said they would fight to the death. They can’t just run away now because things got hard.”

It was funny.

What would Ho Gamyeong or Jang Il-so do if they were in that situation?

‘We would pull back without a moment’s hesitation.’

There was no need to do what the enemy wanted. There was even less need to waste lives. They would see the fire and turn around at the same time.

But they couldn’t do that.

This difference is important. It’s what separates good people from bad people. What the Demonic Faction sees as worthless, like honor, is like chains to them.

If he had understood this difference and made a plan sooner, the Demonic Martial Arts Alliance would be even stronger now. He had never really understood this because he had only dealt with the Demonic Factions until now.

“Haha!”

Jang Il-so laughed softly.

“Oh dear, oh dear. It seems I have to thank someone I don’t particularly like.”

“…”

It was a painful thing to say.

Ho Gamyeong and Jang Il-so both knew how Ho Gamyeong could guess what they would do.

It was all because of one person.

The obsession with cause and principle. Ho Gamyeong learned from someone how much you would suffer if you didn’t understand the ‘compromise’ that was hidden in extreme pragmatism.

By trying to understand someone he couldn’t understand at all, he learned to guess what they would do.

“Learning this lesson cost him a lot.”

“I think so too.”

Ho Gamyeong’s eyes, which had flashed when he thought of that person, calmed down again.

“Good.”

Clink.

Jang Il-so’s wrist bracelets jingled.

“But Gamyeong, those guys won’t just sit still and be defeated, will they?”

“Of course not.”

Ho Gamyeong’s eyes turned to one place.

The middle of the mountain, leading to Cheonjubong Peak. The long, white cliff.

Fire will burn everything it can, but when there is nothing to burn, it can’t go any further. Anyone with sense would take that cliff and try to stop the fire.

“But that’s what I wanted.”

“You wanted it?”

The corner of Ho Gamyeong’s lips twisted slightly, like Jang Il-so’s smile.

“If the people we need to capture and kill gather in one place, why wouldn’t we want that?”

Ho Gamyeong clenched and unclenched his fist a little.

The opponent is Wudang.

It might have been Wudang in the past, but to Ho Gamyeong now, it was just Wudang.

They were not the only ones who had trained in the big battle. Jang Il-so and he were different now. What was hard for him before the Jang River was now easy. They had made a big fire, but the main force of the Demonic Martial Arts Alliance had not even gone to the battlefield yet. If they made a good place and used them, crushing Wudang would be easier than twisting a child’s wrist.

If there was a problem, it would be…

“However…”

“I know.”

Jang Il-so nodded before Ho Gamyeong could speak.

“Those guys are coming, aren’t they?”

“Yes.”

“What do you think? Where are those guys now?”

Ho Gamyeong swallowed a little.

Ho Gamyeong was making fun of Wudang, but talking about them still made him nervous. Especially when ‘he’ was involved.

If this was Gangnam, he would know everything they did, like holding them in his hand. But this was Gangbuk. They didn’t have spies here. Fighting in enemy land was dangerous.

Without information, he had to guess and use logic.

“They probably haven’t gotten close yet.”

“Is that so?”

Jang Il-so smiled like he knew something.

He wouldn’t have known in the past, but Ho Gamyeong now knew what that smile meant. And he had already prepared an answer for that smile.

“Yes. If those guys have any sense, they will think this is a trap.”

“Wudang might be bait?”

“So, they will slow down, worried about an ambush. If they rush and get ambushed, it will be worse than if they didn’t come at all.”

“Hmm. That’s right, they should do that.”

It was a very normal idea. So normal that no one could disagree.

“So, those guys are probably…”

Ho Gamyeong’s eyes turned west. They were sharper than ever.

“They have already arrived close by.”

“…Hmm?”

Ho Gamyeong’s eyes flashed.

“If it’s the Plum Blossom Sword Demon I know, he will never do what I expect.”

His eyes, full of hate, respect, jealousy, and fear, turned west. He felt like an unseen sword was coming for them, even though he couldn’t see it yet.